How old are you Pokémon Fans? (Once again from the top)

[Greninjaman]

'99 baby here, just turned 24 this year.

I was 12 when I voted in the old thread.

3 fewer years and you would have a palindrome.

 

[SunGodNika1997]

27 and born in '95, apparently in the most popular demographic on this forum. Kinda wild, because I remember being considered one of the "babies" of the fandom back in the day. Now I'm part of the old guard.

 

[Zexy]

27 and born in '95, apparently in the most popular demographic on this forum. Kinda wild, because I remember being considered one of the "babies" of the fandom back in the day. Now I'm part of the old guard.

Username does not check out

 

[SunGodNika1997]

Username does not check out

It's actually a One Piece reference, and that's the year it was first published. Definitely could see why that's confusing though. Maybe should have thought that one through...

 

[SambucaDarling]

Must be the oldest here at 49.

 

[Antiyonder]

Must be the oldest here at 49.

Yep. So for now I lose my right to complain about being the oldest.

 

[Zexy]

I am glad you are willing to bear with all us kids, lady and gentleman. Hopefully we are not too annoying

 

[SambucaDarling]

LOL!!! I love y'all.. seriously.

 

[QuietDragon]

Happily in the middle, I was an early 90's kid. I was Too Young to get Pokemon during the craze and I have such an aversion to Very Popular Things, pfft, so when I was seven or so, I didn't get it and found it annoying.

BUT I did love the first Pokemon movie, which my parents got me on tape. I watched it a lot, they even took it with me with the VHS player for when I stayed a week in hospital for my tonsillectomy and recovery. Just eating yoghurt, ice cream, and jello, watching the first movie over and over. I also have a 1998 Banpresto reversible Togepi. I took her with me when I moved away for my first paying job. ^^

I didn't properly join the fandom and really like it and get into it until I was 11-12, around 2004. By that point, the fad had blown over and it was hard to track down a TV channel airing Pokemon. Art Teenz! I had to watch it dubbed in Arabic and watch the Japanese raws--nobody was subtitling all of Pokemon back then! ... some banned episodes, specials, and movies were dubbed by #PM and #Excalibur and such, but that's it...), so I slowly learned Japanese, also while watching other anime subbed. AG was very new, I remember seeing the episodes in Japanese... so I was basically learning Arabic (I'm autistic and kept very much to myself, so I mostly spoke English because all the PC games, TV, and books I consumed were in English... so even though I went to school in Saudi Arabia, I wasn't interacting with others much, didn't pick up their accent, hardly spoke Arabic, and basically always looked and sounded too foreign.)

I still get asked a lot where I'm from, but I can understand classical Arabic very well because of Venus Centre's Pokemon dubs. I was used to Arabic dubs being very bad quality, saw Venus Centre quality dubbing when I first caught Arabic dubbed Pokemon (they dubbed Kanto and Orange Islands!), I caught an episode I knew and loved (Meowth Rules!), and was amazed by how closely they translated from the 4Kids' dub, even for the special motto. Something in me just lit up at hearing such good voice acting and translating and I finally got over my long-time aversion to Arabic dubs and became much more fluent at my native language. ;3; I used to be so bad at Arabic that if people spoke it quickly, their words sounded like an incomprehensible buzz to me. Now, I could understand! I'd get tripped up by dialects and slang, sometimes, especially heavy accents and unfamiliar dialects, but as every Arab knows fus-ha/classical Arabic because it's what's used in school books, news reports, and yes, Arabic dubs of anime and such, I can switch to classical when I don't know how to say things in a dialect and be understood. ^_^ It's also made reading the Quran much easier for me...

The games and especially the concept of special attacks and how to use them were too confusing for my 11-12 year old self. ^o^; I couldn't get into the first gen games, they were waaaay too hard. I was amazed when I played Let's Go Pikachu, the first games I officially bought, and battling was so much easier to understand now!

I joined oekaki, back in the day, like Suta-Raito and Mew's Hangout and yes, even BulbaKaki when it existed (I'll love and cherish your memory forever, BulbaKaki!)... I made friends with other artists there and on deviantArt, I improved my language skills roleplaying Team Rocket with friends (and now that I'm playing Buson against my friend's Bashou, it's like a return to those days!).

I love Pokemon.. ;3; I just joined a little bit later, that's all. It's helped me embrace my native language, improve my art and writing skills, and helped an autistic shut-in make lots of friends online. ♡

 

[PinkIceFox]

I'm old at almost 33, just not the oldest. Though thanks to my Aspergers I'm in a constant state of remembering I am legally an adult. Doesn't help that two different random strangers in two totally different places assumed I was a minor. Suits me fine I'll just be over here sleeping amongst my pile of squishmallows and pokemon plushies.

Back in my day Psychic types were a nightmare and we had to deal with an eldritch pixel monster off the coast of Cinnabar. And don't you kiddos tell me how Pokemon's runnin out of ideas for pokemon in my day we had colorful ball, Eggs, clam with tongue glued to it that evolves into giant clam with a sharp horn, seal with horn that evolves into longer seal with horn, Goldfish with horn that evolves into koi with horn, and three different puddles of goo. And only two of those goo puddles were related!

Instant pokemon: Just add horn.

 

[beryllium]

huh, 16. i'm younger than more people than i expected.
i cant believe i still put a fake birthday on everything. when i was little (like, 7) i would always list my birthday as 1991 for some reason so i could download and play m rated games on my ps account (by "m rated games" i mean devil may cry) and i still havent shaken that stupid habit even though i'm, well, 16, so almost an adult...?
i dont feel ready to become one though

 

[Zexy]

I felt more ready to be an adult at 18...
I wish I had not felt so that much now that I am 26, while I know myself better, I still feel less fit for this world than back then when I had the naivete I could tackle anything.

 

[DigitalGen6]

I’m ready to be an adult now (I also put a fake birthday on stuff when I was young. My fake birth year on my current NNID/NS Account is a year before I was born and was put like that so I could get a NS account so I could buy Puyo Puyo games three years ago, I feel awful about that and I should have waited until after my birthday)

 

[Zexy]

I did put a fake birth year on my old Facebook, 1987 instead of 1997. I do not remember another instance of doing this for other accounts.

 

[Antiyonder]

LOL!!! I love y'all.. seriously.

Same and if still some of you younger adults feel odd about being in the hobby (I also, BTW, indulge in content like MLP, Strawberry Shortcake and the Polly Pocket cartoons), just remember my generation had Toys R Us commercials boasting about not growing up.

Even a commercial in 96 where some actors came back in their adult years. So basically these Fandom are like being a Toys R Us Kids.

 

[Zexy]

Thankfully online shopping has made it such that I would not have to actually set foot in such a store, which would personally make me feel quite embarassed in my local region (but not so much in the next city over).

 

[Anoko Dokonoko]

15 here, born in 2008. I've always been one of the youngest people I've known online (surprisingly though pretty much everyone I know irl who isn't an adult is like way younger than me though, most of them are in the 9-12 age range because my mum doesn't let me be friends with people my age for some reason). I think I remember being on some Pokemon forums when I was like 8 and every time I saw someone swear (which was fairly frequent) I'd get syo scared that my mum would find out that I wouldn't log back in for like a month straight...

 

[toastghost]

i was also born in 2008, i'll be turning 15 in about a month.
i joined the forums when i was 10, mostly due to boredom. should i have joined when i was that young? probably not but hey, i got to meet a bunch of my friends!

 

[DigitalGen6]

15 here, born in 2008. I've always been one of the youngest people I've known online (surprisingly though pretty much everyone I know irl who isn't an adult is like way younger than me though, most of them are in the 9-12 age range because my mum doesn't let me be friends with people my age for some reason). I think I remember being on some Pokemon forums when I was like 8 and every time I saw someone swear (which was fairly frequent) I'd get syo scared that my mum would find out that I wouldn't log back in for like a month straight...

Well now you’re friends with me! ^^ (I turn 17 in like half a year, omg help I think I’m still 15 and on a few occasions 14 I’m losing it)

 

[carpology]

turning 19 in a few days, i only got into pokémon in very early 2014 (as in within the first few days) i believe? with pokémon x. it'll be 10 years soon! bulbagarden is actually the first pokémon community i've joined online, i think; i played online a pretty decent amount on pokémon x and alpha sapphire, since i feel like in those games it was a lot easier to interact with and meet people with the status things you could do to essentially 'talk' to people, but i never really was in any computer (or phone) pokémon communities.